The ten plagues of Egypt

The Plague of Hail

The seventh plague · Exodus 9:13-35 · The book of Exodus

The seventh plague rained down thunder, fire, and hail so heavy it was the worst Egypt had ever seen, shattering the crops, the trees, and every person or animal left in the field. Yet God gave a warning that let those who feared his word bring their servants and cattle indoors, and in Goshen where Israel lived, there was no hail.

And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.Exodus 9:23 (KJV)

What happened

This plague came with the fullest warning yet. The LORD told Pharaoh he could have wiped Egypt from the earth already, but had raised him up for this very purpose, that God's name might be declared through all the earth. Then Moses stretched his rod toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along the ground, and hail fell on all the land of Egypt, upon man, beast, herb, and tree. It was so grievous that there was none like it in all the history of Egypt. The hail smote the flax and the barley, for they were in the ear, and broke every tree of the field.

But mercy ran alongside the judgment. Moses had warned that everyone should gather their servants and animals under shelter, for the hail would kill whatever was left in the open. He that feared the word of the LORD among Pharaoh's servants brought his people and cattle indoors, and they were saved. Those who regarded not the word left them in the field, and lost them. Even in wrath, God gave a way of escape to any who would heed him.

The warning before this plague was the fullest yet. The LORD told Pharaoh that he could already have stretched out his hand and cut Egypt off from the earth, but had let him stand for a purpose, that God's power might be shown in him and his name declared through all the earth. This is one of the plainest statements of God's aim in the whole account: the plagues were never blind fury, but the public unveiling of the living God before the watching nations.

The gods of sky and harvest

Readers have often connected this plague to Egypt's sky and weather, and to Nut, the goddess of the sky, or to gods thought to guard the crops and the fertile fields. The heavens that Egypt looked to for order rained ruin, and the harvest its gods were meant to secure was beaten flat. If those associations are in view, the plague declares that the LORD, not any Egyptian deity, holds the storm and the sky. As with the rest, this is a reasonable and common reading rather than a statement of the text, which is more concerned to stress that there was nothing in Egypt's memory like this storm, and that only in Goshen, where God's people were, did no hail fall.

A crack in Pharaoh's heart

Under the hail Pharaoh went further than ever before. He sent for Moses and said, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Intreat the LORD, for it is enough. It sounded like true repentance, the closest he ever came. But Moses saw through it, and told him plainly, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God. And so it proved. When the thunder and hail ceased, Pharaoh sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants. His confession was real fear but not real repentance; it lasted only while the sky was falling. Once more the account holds together his own hardening and, in the wider story, God's, a man confirmed in the rebellion he keeps choosing. His nearest approach to repentance turned out to be his clearest proof that a fear of consequences is not at all the same thing as the fear of God.

What it revealed about the LORD

The hail revealed a God who commands the heavens themselves, whose judgment is overwhelming and whose mercy is real in the same breath. He warned before he struck; he made a way for any who would fear his word; he spared the place where his people were. It revealed that God had a declared purpose in all of it, that his name might be known through all the earth, and that even Pharaoh had been left standing so that the whole world might see the power of the living God.

Mercy inside the storm

What sets the hail apart from the plagues before it is the open door of escape running right through the judgment. Moses told the Egyptians plainly what was coming and how to be spared: bring your servants and your cattle under shelter, for the hail will kill whatever is left in the field. And some believed. He that feared the word of the LORD among Pharaoh's servants made his people and beasts flee into the houses, and they lived. He that regarded not the word of the LORD left them in the field, and they died.

That single division cuts through all Egypt, not by nation now but by faith. The difference between life and death in the storm was whether a person took God at his word enough to act on it. Some Egyptians did, and were spared; and their sparing is a quiet gospel in the middle of the wrath, proof that the mercy of the LORD was never only for Israel, but for anyone who would fear his word.

The hail itself was overwhelming, thunder and fire running along the ground and ice falling as Egypt had never seen, breaking the trees and the crops and every unsheltered thing. And yet even here God warned, God waited, and God saved all who heeded him. Judgment and mercy fell together from the same sky, and the only shelter was the word of the LORD believed and obeyed.

The shadow of redemption

The warning before the hail is a picture of grace. God tells the truth about the coming judgment and opens a door of shelter to anyone who will believe his word enough to come inside. Those who feared the word were saved; those who despised it were not, and the only difference was whether they heeded God. This is the shape of salvation itself. The same God who sheltered the trusting from the hail would one day open the door of the ark of his own Son, so that all who hear his word and come to him are safe when the storm of judgment falls. The exodus keeps teaching the one lesson: God saves those who take him at his word.

This is the pattern of every rescue God works. He tells the truth about the judgment to come, and he opens a door of shelter to all who will believe his word enough to run through it. The Egyptians who feared the word and came indoors were saved by the same word that condemned those who despised it, and the difference was faith. So it is with the gospel. The word that warns of judgment is also the word that offers refuge, and all who take God at his word and take shelter in Christ are safe when the storm falls. The hail preaches what the whole of Scripture preaches, that God saves those who hear his word and believe it, and that no one who runs to him for shelter is ever turned away.

A note on reading the plagues: this account follows Exodus faithfully and does not add to it. The idea that each plague confronted a particular Egyptian god or power is a widely held and often persuasive reading, and it is presented here as an interpretation, not as a certainty. Except on the final night, where Exodus itself says the LORD executed judgment against all the gods of Egypt, the text names no specific deity. What Scripture states plainly is that the LORD alone is God, that he heard the cry of his people, and that he brought them out with a mighty hand.

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